Internationalization in the if statement

Tere is a dispute if i18n works in the case below

<ng-cointainer *ngIf="anything" i18n>Something to translate</ng-container>

according to one person, i18n won't work and it should look like this:

<ng-cointainer *ngIf="anything"><span i18n>Something to translate</span></ng-container>

My question is is there anythng wrong with the first way? If yes, then why it would not work?